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"All sects and parties of the Christian world have departed, in greater or less degrees, from the simplicity of faith and manners of the first Christians." Alexander Campbell.
The Restoration Movement was an attempt to reduce the splintering of the orthodox church by following only the teachings in the Christian Bible, rather than any human initiated authority or doctrine. The motto the Restorationists adopted was, "Back to the Bible". Their ultimate goal was that all Christians would band with them, desert their former religious practices and return to the sort of religious practice in the Bible, as much as it could be determined. But even the Restoration churches soon splintered.
Traditional liturgical churches accused the Restorationists of creative Bible interpretations. It is interesting to note that these other churches generally believed that all such movements were invitations to heresy because all the creeds and doctrine were put into effect specifically to solve the kinds of problems the new movement hoped to resolve by getting rid of them. Rev. Robert Baird put it this way in the chapter entitled "Disciples of Christ" that appears in an anthology called "Religion in the United States of America" (1844). "All church history has shown that there is no more certain way of introducing all manner of heresy than by dispensing with all written creeds and formularies of doctrine, and allowing all who profess to believe in the Bible, though attaching any meaning to it they please, to become members of the church. For a while, possibly, this scheme may seem to work well. But, ere half a century, all manner of error will be found to have entered and nestled in the house of God."
As early as the Revolutionary War ministers were balking at the restrictions of existing organizational structures. Methodist James O'Kelly (1757-1826) got freedom from Methodist oversight for himself and other circuit riding ministers by forming the Republican Methodist Church, whose name they changed in 1794 to the Christian Church. Abner Jones (1772-1841) and Elias Smith (1769-1846) broke from the Baptist church and formed more Restorationist Christian churches in New England. Among the 19th century's most prominent Restorationists were Thomas Campbell (1763-1854), his son Alexander Campbell(1788-1866), Barton Stone (1772-1884), Tolbert Fanning (1810-1874) and David Lipscomb (1831-1917).
Barton Stone left the Presbytery in 1804 and set about baptizing people and preaching throughout the countryside. Alexander Campbell and his father, Thomas Campbell left the Presbyterian Church in 1812. Thomas was a prominent Presbyterian minister in Scotland before moving his family to the United States in the early 1800s, and once was charged with heresy by that church for his views regarding returning to the Bible. Thomas and Alexander Campbell formed and co-pastored the Brush Run Church in Washington County, Pennsylvania in 1810. The new congregation determined that infant baptism was not scriptural and joined the Redstone Baptist Association in 1813. The Baptists at that time required a statement of faith along with baptism, but the Brush Run congregation demanded a stipulation releasing them from it, stating that nothing but strict adherence to the Bible would be required for membership there. This earned them the name "Campbellite Baptists", a moniker the group resented. Alexander was the best known of the Restorationist leaders because he wrote, traveled and preached extensively.
Barton and his followers merged with the Campbell's church in 1832. But many years later in 1906 a split occurred over the matter of instrumental music in church. The two resulting churches were the Church of Christ (Non-instrumental) and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). A second major division occurred in 1968 within the Christian Church. Its more liberal division formed the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the more conservative division formed the Christian Church/Churches of Christ. Ultimately these churches sorted out to be The Independent Christian Churches, The Churches of Christ, and The Disciples of Christ.
All of the churches that have resulted from the Restoration movement believe that Jesus is God's son, sent to provide salvation from sin and death for the people who believe. They all believe in a full body immersion baptism, and do not believe in infant baptism. They believe in taking a symbolically sacrificial communion meal of unleavened bread to represent the flesh of Jesus, and "fruit of the vine" (typically grape juice rather than wine) to represent his blood. This communion is administered by male members of the church on every Sunday of the year. Women do much of the support work of these churches but until quite recently were allowed few or no decision making powers within most of them. Even recent developments in some liberal branches lend only small decision making authority to female members. The Disciples of Christ have been more open in their policies towards female ministers. Most still believe that women should not be teachers over any baptized male, much less ministers or elders.
Of the three groups, the Disciples of Christ is the only one that has an overseeing organization. The three major distinctions between the groups are the Disciples of Christ umbrella organization, the non-instrumental dogma of the Church of Christ, and the names of the different churches (Christian, Disciples of Christ and Church of Christ).
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